Superman can do almost anything. And that's one reason his movies have struggled

Geoff Nixon · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 21, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: June 21

Superman returns to the large surface this summer, arsenic DC Studios tries to reinvigorate the movie fortunes of its iconic do-gooder.

But that's not an casual task, contempt workplace concern of astatine slightest $225 cardinal US in Superman, which hits theatres connected July 11 starring David Corenswet.

Because, for each his powers, Superman has struggled arsenic a movie franchise. Movie-goers have many superheroes to take from, and those commercial pressures are separate from the perpetual issue of coming up with compelling stories for a morally rigid leader with fewer vulnerabilities.  

Aficionados say Superman's agelong past successful popular civilization provides a large imaginable audience, but his fans person expectations that tin beryllium hard to meet. 

"Superman tin beryllium a pugnacious seed to crack," said creator Jason Fabok, co-founder of media institution Ghost Machine, who antecedently worked for DC Comics — drawing the Man of Steel for the Justice League and Superman/Batman titles. He besides helped shape Superman's look connected a collectible coin.

"He's got each these fans… They privation a bully Superman movie. They want something that's going to truly evoke those feelings that they had of the quality for each these years."

To succeed, this Superman volition person to beryllium the old-fashioned hero remains compelling for today's audiences — a situation where prior movies person struggled.

"Can this caller iteration beryllium the 1 that is the spark to say: Superman's inactive cool?" asked Todd McFarlane, the Calgary-born comics pro who created the Spawn quality and co-founded Image Comics. He besides founded McFarlane Toys, a company that's making tie-in enactment figures for the film.

If not, McFarlane says Superman could spell the mode of Mickey Mouse — a erstwhile pop-culture juggernaut who has fallen by the wayside.

McFarlane says it tin beryllium difficult to find problems for Superman to face, fixed his super-powers.

"He's astir god-like, right? So... what's the jeopardy of our hero?" helium asked. 

"Superman seems to beryllium capable to rotation moons connected his digit similar a basketball. So, what's his Achilles heel?" McFarlane notes this is wherefore aboriginal writers came up with kryptonite. 

That's the situation facing this movie's writer-director James Gunn, who's undoubtedly nether unit to present a winner, contempt besides being the studio's co-CEO. DC Studios did not respond to inquiries from CBC News astir the new Superman.

"I wouldn't privation to beryllium successful his shoes," said McFarlane, contempt Gunn's success bringing Marvel's once-obscure Guardians of the Galaxy to the screen.

McFarlane says, aft penning and illustrating comics for 40 years, there's a halfway rule helium keeps successful mind.

"Being a leader should beryllium hard," helium said. "There should beryllium origin and effect of everything you do."

That tin pb to scenarios wherever Superman indispensable marque hard choices, oregon header with competing crises. Like successful 1978's Superman, successful which Lois Lane died erstwhile helium was preoccupied with different matters. (Fortunately, he turned backmost time to prevention her life.)

A batch of lore

Superman made his Action Comics debut successful 1938, co-created by Canadian-born creator Joe Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel.

The cape-draped hero eventually made his mode to radio, cartoons, tv and the movies — and a batch has happened on the way. (A tiny sample: Superman proposed matrimony to a mermaid; his concealed individuality was repeatedly revealed; and he died astatine 1 point.)

With truthful overmuch history, there're a batch of imaginable communicative nuggets to beryllium mined — and it appears Superman's makers cognize this, fixed the galore characters seen in the movie's trailers, including the hero's dog, Krypto.

And adjacent if immoderate — Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Jimmy Olsen — are already highly familiar to audiences, Fabok says they can beryllium compelling if fixed the close tweaks. 

He recalls when, successful the comics, Luthor became the president of the United States, prompting the question: "What happens if Superman has to look Lex Luthor now, but he's moving the country?"

A reliable hero 

Superman is an unapologetic bully guy. Fans and comics creators say that's halfway to his quality and his enduring appeal.

"You cognize that Superman is good," said Fabok, recalling a infinitesimal successful 1 movie when it's stated the leader is "what humanity should strive for." 

Steve Younis, the editor-in-chief of the long-running Superman Homepage, says Superman "does the close happening simply due to the fact that it's the close happening to do," and arsenic specified inspires the audience.

Gunn has argued the same, telling Rolling Stone that the "very bully quality of him, this truly beardown content successful what's right, sometimes possibly to a fault, is what makes Superman who helium is."

Some fans anticipation the new Superman volition steer toward a brighter on-screen experience. Some caller Superman adventures that went to darker, moodier places, simply "never worked," for Fabok. 

He and McFarlane some say Superman is simply a quality who belongs successful the light — some visually and conceptually.

"Superman is simply a quality of the day, the sun," said Fabok.

"He's bright, he's a beacon of hope."